


Laughter

by KuraiTsuky



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - All Female, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Nora is a cutie, Other, Pearl is sad, Pre-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 06:40:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18805771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuraiTsuky/pseuds/KuraiTsuky
Summary: Pearl teaches Nora how to dance.





	Laughter

**Author's Note:**

> I've made Steven into Nora for a simple reason, I usually write fics to "fix" certain character stories that break my hear (case and point, my million stories with a happy ending for Obito). However I like how Steven's evolved as a character, so instead I decided to tweak him in another direction. Hope you like it.

Pearl watches with a critical eye as Nora bends down to stretch, her form is perfect, for a pearl. And she wants to laugh hysterically at the thought of a Diamond dancing like a pearl. But she had asked with that soft manner of hers and as always, Pearl had been unable to deny her anything. She has to chase away those thoughts when the girl’s eyes look at her interrogating and she realizes she has to start the lesson. Pearl supresses a blush of embarrassment and shows Nora the moves.

She wonders a little bit later, as Nora breathes through the moves like she was born to dance just like this, with a delicacy and elegance that would make most pearls weep in envy, how much of Rose there is in her. She is tall for her age, true, but not so much that she’s out of place among humans, she has big black eyes, but they look more like Greg’s than Roses. Pearl grabs her chin on instinct and corrects that statement as Nora bows and leaps with an ease no human could achieve, there is as much of Greg in her as there is of Rose.

A strand of the girl’s light pink hair falls from her bun and finally, Pearls manages to admit, at least to herself, that Nora doesn’t take after either of her parents, she is all Pink. Even when she laughs she sounds more like the Diamond Rose began as rather than the Quartz she became, and it eats at her, not being able to just say it. Her fingers tremble, much to her shame, when she reaches and brushes the strand away, but Nora doesn’t realize, she just looks up at her and offers a big, bright smile that melts Pearl’s heart once more.

After a while, Pearl sends the girl to the shower and watches her go with a bittersweet smile. Today Amethyst and Garnet are out hunting some corrupted gems and their absence only makes Rose’s more apparent. Nora has to go spend time with her father later, Pearl thinks with distaste, but she did promise Garnet she wouldn’t keep her from the man again and so, in about an hour, she will grit her teeth and pretend it doesn’t feel like her world is ending all over again whenever she sees Nora with _him_.

It’s been eight years, after more than six thousand, and it’s nowhere near enough.

Rose asked her to look after Nora, her dream taken form, and even after so long, there is nothing Pearl wouldn’t do for her friend, for her Diamond.

Thus, it still boggles her how much she has grown to love Nora as Nora in so little time. She wasn’t made for her, but every burst of happiness from the girl is more than enough to patch the cracks in her heart, if only momentarily. There will always be a part of her that will want Rose back, but the idea of losing Nora has become so unbearable she cannot even contemplate it. She looks at her fingers and has to close her eyes before the images of those same digits attempting to tear Rose’s Gem from Nora invade her mind.

Pearl buries her shame along many other feelings and the one secret that is, secretly breaking her apart.

Nora laughs as Greg throws her in the air, and she concentrates her pale blue eyes in her, capturing that image for the ages, this is what she fights for now. Not for this world that still doesn’t feel quite right or for the humans she doesn’t understand, but for that laugh, to make it last forever.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, or don't, it's a free country <3


End file.
